7

“Fresh,” said Buju, examining the remains of the berries drying on the rock. “But it could just be monkeys.”

Blaze’s stony expression suggested he wasn’t convinced. He nodded a silent order to the others to check the cave and its surroundings. They quickly fanned out, their eyes to the ground.

No Mercy spotted a patch of displaced earth. He kicked away the dirt to reveal the ashes of a recent fire.

“It must be them,” he called to Blaze.

One of the soldiers then found the charred skin of a snake. He held it up for the others to see.

“They killed and ate a black mamba!” he exclaimed with more than a little admiration.

Dredd wandered into the cave. His bare feet crunched on the ground. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dimness before he spied the pile of leaves near the back wall.

“They slept in here,” he informed Blaze.

Feeling a crawling sensation, he looked down to see a black mass swarming up his legs. His eyes widening in horror, Dredd bolted out of the cave.

“Siafu! Siafu!” he screamed, stamping his feet manically to dislodge the vicious driver ants as No Mercy and the other soldiers laughed.

“Dance, Dredd, dance!” taunted one of the men.

“Silence!” barked Blaze, indifferent to the boy’s suffering. Turning his back on Dredd, he demanded of the tracker: “How long since the kids were here?”

Buju found a half-eaten berry, its skin dried out but its flesh still moist. “Ten minutes, maybe less.”

“And which way did they go?”

The tracker’s eyes surveyed the undergrowth. No stems were broken or leaves bruised. No foliage flattened. No footprints in the earth. That left only one obvious route.

“They’re following the stream,” he said.

Blaze unsheathed his machete, a grin on his lips. “Now the hunt really begins.”